However, this year is different. Many years ago, mice made their nests in the insulation of the camper. Then they expanded to fill the cupboards. I was providing them with such a nice home and lots of birdseed under the feeders. Occasionally I would see droppings as they travelled across my boxes. But they never bothered my Christmas stuff.
Until this year. As I was getting the boxes, I opened one lid to see which box it was (I know; I should label them. But every year it all gets stored in different configurations; and I get a few or many new things every year, too; so labeling is useless. Besides, it is fun to look for something in different boxes. {Son: 'She just like to rearrange things. I never know where anything is.'})
Anyway, this box I opened had a mouse nest built between and on top of some of the boxes of my best ornaments! And stink!!! Pee and poop across the boxes and boxes nibbled for bedding and trails of pee and poop ON the ornaments!! Major YUCK!! I swear my son could hear me all the way to the house and way back in his room! But, wait... that wasn't me yelling... I don't say words like that!!
Anything and everything is stored out there, so I found a large bag and took the box outside and gingerly got my ornament boxes and scraped off the gook and shook off the poop and tried to rescue as much as I could. The waxed box got dumped. Ornaments got carefully washed.
I got a couple more large boxes and took them to the house along with the bag, which the cats thought was very interesting. Then I had a serious discussion with my son about big Rubbermaid air-tight bins. The next day I went to Walmart and got lots of Rubbermaid.
When I finally got home, the cats didn't meet me at the door; they
were sacked out, apparently exhausted. I was puzzled. But I noticed as
I went through the house that the middle of every floor was littered
with every dustbunny in the house! (Alright, I don't do dustbunnies
very well. If you can't see it under the furniture, why bother?
)
Then I went down the hall and almost fell over to avoid stepping on a mouse! It was just lying there, not moving. There wasn't a mark on it; but it was dead. Then I knew why the cats were so exhausted; they had chased the poor mouse until it expired from exhaustion! (I had a Physical Education teacher like that, once... Not dead; she would just work us kids till we wanted to die.) Anyway, I still want to know; which box did the mouse come out of? One of the other boxes I didn't open yet, or did it hide in an ornament box under the ornament? I will find out when I get into everything this afternoon. If I find another nest or a hiding mouse, You will probably hear me screech all the way to the newsgroup!
I don't want my ornaments messed with by anyone or anything! Actually, some of them are quite old and some of those are foreign and irreplaceable.
Copyright © Catherine Jo Sadler
December 17, 2001
